


Piano Keys and Cello Strings

by Ignis_Sassentia



Series: Song of the Soul (A Musical Soulmate AU) [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: AU where the Scientias and the Nox Fleurets are cousins, Baby!Ignis, Baby!Luna, Cellist Lunafreya, Gen, Ignis Fluff Week, Musical Instruments, Pianist Ignis, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate AU, Tenebraean Ignis, musical soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-12 20:58:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12968292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignis_Sassentia/pseuds/Ignis_Sassentia
Summary: Eight-year-old Ignis returns home to Tenebrae one summer and accidentally discovers his platonic soulmate by playing the piano.





	Piano Keys and Cello Strings

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for [Ignis Fluff Week](https://ignisfluff.tumblr.com), for the theme "baby Ignis." It's also pretty much a tiny prologue for a larger fic to come eventually. 
> 
> Some notes on this AU:  
> \- Romantic soulmates share the same unique melody in their heads  
> \- Platonic soulmates have a unique melody/harmony pair  
> \- Ignis grew up in Tenebrae with his cousins, Lunafreya and Ravus, before taking responsibility for Noctis  
> \- This is a happy AU! Lucis is technically at war with Niflheim, but they're in a period of actual ceasefire, so the war isn't immediate and travel between Lucis and Tenebrae is still easy

Summers in Tenebrae were Ignis’ favorite. It never got too hot--not like those sweltering summers he’d spent in Insomnia after taking responsibility for Prince Noctis’ education, two years ago--and there was something sweet and dreamy about all the white curtains fluttering in the breeze from the open windows. Plus, summertime was the only time King Regis absolutely insisted he take time off to go home while the prince did survival drills with his Shield and the Crownsguard. It was always hard to leave Noct’s side, but three whole weeks at home in Tenebrae was more than worth it.

Aunt Sylva and Ravus had met him at the train station yesterday and he’d spent most of the evening and this morning in a formal capacity--updating the Tenebraean Council on his progress with the Lucian Crown Prince, the growth of King Regis’ new Kingsglaive force, and all the other miscellaneous things that had happened over the last year. It wasn’t anything a normal eight-year-old would have been expected to do, but Ignis knew he wasn’t exactly a normal child.

Of course, that didn’t stop it from being a huge relief when he was finally dismissed. He was tired from the days of travel, and hungry, and the grownups were _annoying_ when they didn’t believe his answers to their questions.

Ignis hurried out of the council hall, his little collection of folders and papers clutched to his chest, and tried not to look too happy to have the afternoon to himself. He liked his position in Insomnia, but he never got time alone any more. And, adding to the list of reasons why Ignis Scientia was not a normal child, he had always valued his quiet time.

Not that he meant for this afternoon to actually be all that “quiet.” After all, he’d missed the beautiful old grand piano he’d learned to play on.

It hunkered in a disused ballroom, just as shiny and well-kept as he remembered it. He carefully closed the door behind him and scurried across the scuffed wooden floor. His fingers trailed reverentially across the polished lid and heaved it open. Smiling to himself, he set his papers on the cushioned bench and flopped down. His feet didn’t reach the pedals yet. He was still too short. But that didn’t stop him from picking out the unique melody that had played in his head for as long as he could remember. Between his perfect pitch and the lessons he’d had before he left for Insomnia, it wasn’t hard.

His Soul Song, Aunt Sylva had called it when he’d asked. The song that would lead him to his soulmate. If they shared the same melody, they were destined to be romantically involved. If they harmonized, they would be the best of friends forever.

Ignis wasn’t really sure _how_ people were supposed to go about finding their soulmates--especially when they were people busy in government and training Crown Princes and trying to read every book in the Insomnian Royal Library to make sure they knew enough to appropriately do their jobs as they got older--but he apparently had one. Or two, since he had a line of harmony that didn’t match his melody in his mind, too. Though there were stories of really strong friend-soulmates sharing two harmonizing songs, so he wasn’t certain. He didn’t let himself think about it much normally, but he mulled it over as he played the melody on the smooth, cool keys.

It was soothing, to hear it with his ears again, instead of just inside his skull. Sure, he fumbled over a note here and there, but he wasn’t half bad.

“Ignis?”

He jumped and turned around so quickly he knocked his pile of papers off the piano bench. “Luna!”

Lunafreya stood near the door, hands behind her back and an odd little smile on her face. She’d grown a couple inches since Ignis’ last trip home, and was now a little taller than he was. “What were you playing?”

Ignis self-consciously pushed his glasses up and scrambled to pick up his fallen papers in a weak attempt to avoid her piercing blue-violet gaze. There was something about her presence that always put Ignis at ease, even when she startled him, but anyone catching him playing his Soul Song was, well, _embarrassing._ After all, he was only eight and, as much as he wasn’t a normal kid, he was still way too young to seriously think about things like _soulmates_. “Oh. Um. It was nothing.”

“Mmhmm.” Luna didn’t sound convinced. She skipped forward and snatched up one of his folders, deftly sweeping it behind her back as she smiled sweetly at him. “You should know better than to lie to the future Oracle, Iggy.”

He pulled a face and tried to snatch the file back. “ _Luuuunaaa_.”

“You can have it back if you tell me what you were playing,” she proclaimed, easily keeping it out of his reach.

“My Soul Song,” he admitted in a grumble, holding out his hand for the folder. If there was one thing he could count on his cousin for, it was keeping her word. Just giving into her game was easier than attempting to fight her for the return of the papers.

Lunafreya’s eyes widened incrementally, but she handed over the file. “Really? I didn’t know you had a Song.”

He nodded sheepishly and looked down to reorganize his papers. “Apparently I do.”

“And that was it,” she pressed.

“Yes.” Ignis finally glanced up to find Luna studying him intently, her lips pursed a little and her eyes ever so slightly narrowed. He frowned and carefully set his stack of paperwork aside again. “Why?”

She brushed blonde hair out of her eyes, gave him a mysterious little smile and ordered, “Stay right here.”

Ignis opened his mouth to ask what she was planning, but Luna had moved before he could get a word out. He watched in surprise as she skirted the grand piano and trotted to the corner of the ballroom nearest the huge floor-to-ceiling windows. How had he not noticed the lavender cello case propped against the wall?

Without another word, Luna dragged the case and a chair over to the piano and began setting up and tuning the cello. She’d started lessons a little over a year before Ignis had finally settled on learning piano, but she handled the instrument as if she’d been playing it her whole life. Once the strings were tuned and the bow tightened and resined to her satisfaction, she looked up and ordered, “Play it again.”

Understanding hit Ignis all at once, driving the breath from his lungs as he stared at his cousin. There was no way she was his soulmate. It just wasn’t possible. They’d known each other their whole lives, and they both had so many responsibilities to Tenebrae and Lucis, and--and what did being soulmates even really _mean_ , anyway?

“Play it again, Iggy,” Luna repeated gently, tapping him on the shoulder with the tip of her bow. “Please?”

He sucked in a deep breath, sat down on the bench more heavily than he intended, and turned back to the piano. He’d never played his private song for anyone before. It felt a little like whispering his biggest secret in the dark when they were younger. But he placed his fingers on the keys and began to play, slower and more hesitant than the way it sounded in his head. His hands were still too small for the reach required to play it as smoothly as he wanted.

The soft, rich hum of Luna’s cello swelled beneath the piano, playing at a tempo closer to the one that had occupied Ignis’ mind for as long as he could remember--too fast to match the way he was currently playing, but harmonizing perfectly with the melody echoing in his skull.

His fingers froze on the cool keys. He twisted to watch Luna, who was playing with her eyes closed and her head slightly bowed against the cello’s neck. They’d harmonized, without even trying. The only way she could have come up with a harmony after only hearing a few bars was if she shared his Song.

Everything he knew about soulmates--which, admittedly, wasn’t very much--ran through Ignis’ mind as Luna continued to play the delicate harmony, apparently oblivious to the fact that he’d stopped playing the melody on the piano. Since she’d played a harmony instead of the same melody, they were what he’d been told were “platonic soulmates.” People with very strong familial or friendship bonds. People whose friendship ran so deep that it was a part of the fabric of their very being. The very definition of “best friends forever.”

Luna had promised that they would always be friends the night before he left for Lucis two years ago. They’d been sitting together in the warm summer breeze, eating ice cream and dangling their feet over the side of the balcony. He’d told her he was worried they’d stop talking once he moved across the sea, how he couldn’t stand that thought, and she’d promised without even thinking about it that it would never be a problem.

Because they were, apparently, soulmates.

The cello faded off and Luna’s eyes opened to meet Ignis’ gaze. Her lips twitched into a tiny little smile as she lowered her bow. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

Ignis nodded dumbly. “When you said we’d be friends forever...you really meant it.”

“Of course I did.” Lunafreya laughed and gingerly set her cello on the ground so she could reach over and rest a hand on Ignis’. “Even if we weren’t soulmates, we’d always be friends, Ignis. This...just makes it easier.”

Ignis nodded again, then frowned as his brain finally caught up with what being soulmates with the future Oracle would mean. They both already had so many huge responsibilities and they hadn’t even finished their childhoods yet. He swallowed and shoved his glasses up his nose. “Easier until one government or the other decides our duties should take us even further apart. Or until someone realizes they can get to you through me--or to Prince Noctis, for that matter. Or until--”

“Ignis,” she interrupted gently, squeezing his hand, a fond little smile on her face. “For once, would you please just relax? We can work out all the political ramifications later. Tonight, we should just take a moment to be happy. We’re soulmates! That’s something to celebrate.”

He bit his lip. Luna was right. They were still kids, even despite all their responsibilities and whatever was going to happen in their future. They could take a day to play music together and catch up from the last year. An idea occurred to him and he smiled just a little. “Do you think we might get some ice cream to celebrate, in that case?”

A brilliant smile spread over her face and she stood quickly, tugging him with her. “Ice cream sounds lovely. Let’s go before someone comes to remind us we’re supposed to be upstanding young Tenebraean royalty.”

Ignia giggled and moved to sweep up his paperwork, but Luna pulled him away before he could grab them.

“They’ll be fine in here. Come on.” She grinned back at him and yanked him out of the ballroom before he could protest.


End file.
